Art Shop Gallery
202 W. Pioneer Ave.
Prints on steel by Taz Tally
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception
Homer photographer Taz Tally presents his black-and-white images printed on metal. His subjects range from large landscapes to small subjects like the details of a single feather. Tally wrote “50 Hikes in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula” and teaches photography online and in the classroom. He said he has been inspired by Ansel Adams and the beauty of the Kenai Peninsula.
Bunnell Street Arts Center
106 W. Bunnell Ave.
Open Space/Open Minds, paintings by Linda Enfante Lyons
Set the Table, ceramic art by Debra Schwartzkopf
5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artists talk
Artist Linda Enfante Lyons writes writes: “Buddha teaches that the essence of an enlightened mind is open space. We often feel small and insignificant in the presence of wide open spaces. Open space is where we go to ‘lose’ ourselves, removing self as the central pivotal point in our own created space. We are drawn to the ocean and wide open landscapes to quiet our minds, achieve a sense of clarity and gain perspective.” She says her exhibit is a series of landscape paintings inspired by travels to vast Arctic spaces at Wales, Gambell on St. Lawrence Island and the Kobuk area. Her works looks at the relationship between physical and psychological landscapes and the awareness of open space both intellectually and spiritually.
“I build porcelain pottery whose defining lines and soft planes are geometric and sensual, elegant and animated, and architectural and organic,” Debra Schwartzkop writes of her ceramic art: “I merge nature’s placement of hue and the signals employed in human created environments to imply function, trigger associations and call for exploration.” She said she intends her pots “to live in the kitchen where economy and celebration infuse life with purposeful beauty.”
Diamond Ridge Art Studio and Gallery
4025 Homer Spit Road
2-5 p.m. Watercolor demonstration by Jan Peyton
As part of First Friday activities, Jan Peyton will be doing a painting demonstration at Diamond Ridge Art Studio, weather permitting.
Fireweed Gallery
475 E. Pioneer Ave.
Life Force of Flowers, Alaska and Hawaii, paintings by Jan Peyton
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
The title of long time Homer artist and teacher Jan Peyton’s exhibit conveys the importance of flowers in her life. Flowers nurture her and make her feel drawn to drawn for their healing properties, she writes. Her floral paintings have been inspired by the flowers that grow near her home and flowers, including orchids, seen during time spent in Maui. Peyton uses a variety of watercolor techniques in her paintings, including precision and detail or the “fuzzy,” wet-on-wet technique, “a method more suitable in depicting the flower’s essence or spirit,” she writes.
Homer Council on the Arts
344 W. Pioneer Ave.
Wildlands, paintings by Hailey Smith
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Hailey Smith’s “Wildlands” continues on exhibit through August. Raised in Homer, Smith studied fine art and illustration at the Altos de Chavon School of Design in the Dominican Republic. She is a lover of wilderness, and being from Alaska, the trees and mountains are her inspiration. As a painter, she says she tries to capture and share the importance and purity of nature in all that she produces. In “Wildlands,” the focus is on landscapes that are either untouched and protected by man, or places that were once inhabited and have now been retaken by nature. Hailey said she feels that these are now the most important pieces of land left in the world, and should be cherished as such.
Homer Elks Lodge
215 Jenny Way
Paint In by Jim Buncak
5-9 p.m., First Friday
Homer Elks Lodge continues its summer First Friday Paint In, this week with a portrait by one of Homer’s finest portrait artists, Jim Buncack. Buncak will paint on the back deck of the Elks from 5-8 p.m., and the painting then is auctioned off at 9 p.m.
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
471 E. Pioneer Ave.
Movement in Glass, sculptures by Cindy Nelson
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Glass artist Cindy Nelson writes that mosaics are a two-dimensional, static medium, and for this show she wanted to challenge herself to make them appear three-dimensional and fluid. “Glass has motion and fluidity only in its melting phase, and for this body of work, I felt compelled to try to unlock that by another method: chipping, cracking, nipping, and shaping the brittle pieces to reflect the origin of the glass,” she writes. “I love working with rolled opaque stained glass. Different colors are melted to a caramel-like state, poured together, then rolled out flat and thin to their final solid state. The swirls and streams of color are locked into the cooled glass, giving the illusion of motion and fluidity and inspiring me to design around that.”
Pratt Museum
3779 Bartlett Street
Ocean Treasure, Ocean Trash
5-7 p.m., First Friday reception
In celebration of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies’ 30th Annual Kachemak Bay CoastWalk, the Pratt Museum presents “Ocean Treasure, Ocean Trash,” a hands-on exhibit that shows how we fit in this watery world, how we impact the life within it and how we can be the solution to ocean pollution. The exhibit centers around community-created sculptures made from marine debris to explore the threat of this debris and its worldwide impact. Starting in mid-August, the Pratt will hold a series of workshops to create a new sculpture. Community members can learn more about that project at the opening or by visiting the exhibit. This exhibit is supported in part by Apache Alaska Corporation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and the city of Homer.
